The field of the disclosure relates generally to wireless data acquisition nodes, and, more particularly, to systems and methods for operating wireless data acquisition nodes with reduced power consumption.
At least some known systems, including vehicles such as aircraft, include data acquisition nodes that monitor certain parameters associated with the system. At least some such known data acquisition nodes are remotely located, such that no connections to system power or data busses are available. Such “disconnected” nodes may be used, to cite just a few examples, to monitor pressure at a location in a vehicle environmental control system, to monitor electrical current to a fan of a vehicle environmental control system, to monitor strain in aircraft landing gear components, and/or to monitor any number of parameters associated with any of a wide variety of systems.
Such disconnected data acquisition nodes must use a self-contained power source, such as a small battery, to support data acquisition, potentially at thousands of samples per second, and to support wireless transmission of the acquired data for use or storage by a system server. However, data acquisition and wireless transmission are relatively power-intensive operations. Consequently, at least some known “disconnected” data acquisition nodes have a limited battery life. Moreover, battery replacement on a multitude of disconnected nodes distributed throughout a system, such as in various hard-to-access locations on an aircraft, is a labor- and time-intensive process.